The Mind-blowing Hypocrisy of John McCain: WMD Lie is Good, Repeating Intelligence is Bad

Hypocrisy alert: John McCain supported Condoleeza Rice who misled the public on WMD, causing thousands to die, but now attacks Susan Rice.

Remember when Condoleezza Rice misled the public about Iraq’s WMDs and over 4,000 Americans died? John McCain doesn’t seem to. McCain is trying to sell the idea that Susan Rice appearing on TV to tell the American people what the intelligence community had ascertained about Libya on September 18 was wrong. She should have chosen not to speak on the subject without more certainty, he and Lindsay Graham claim. Yet, Susan Rice’s statement made it clear that things were not certain. Here, once again, is her statement to the media on September 18 (emphasis mine):

RICE: Well, first of all, Chris, we are obviously investigating this very closely. The FBI has a lead in this investigation. The information, the best information and the best assessment we have today is that in fact this was not a preplanned, premeditated attack… Obviously, we will wait for the results of the investigation and we don’t want to jump to conclusions before then. But I do think it’s important for the American people to know our best current assessment.

Later, when the intelligence community updated their information, we learned that perhaps things didn’t go down as they first thought. Here’s a shocker for Republicans: Now there are reports saying that it might have had something to do with the video after all. The lesson here is that it takes time to gather the information. The Obama administration wanted to give the public the information it had on that date in September, and they continued to update us as they learned more. You can’t know what you don’t know yet. This is not hard to understand.

What is hard to understand is that as National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice made a public case for the Iraq war based on what was misleading information. John McCain later supported her confirmation as Secretary of State in 2005 and said that anyone who questioned her integrity did so for political reasons. McCain lectured, “We can disagree on policy and we disagree on a lot of things, but I think it is very clear that Condoleezza Rice is a person of integrity. And yes, I see this, some lingering bitterness over a very tough campaign.” Oh, do tell, Senator. Back in 2002, Bush officials made the rounds on TV to claim that Iraq was accumulating high-strength aluminum tubes. Condoleezza Rice said the tubes “are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs.” Rice told CNN, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” There was no proof that Iraq had nuclear weapons and there was, in fact, intelligence to the contrary.

Here is Condoleezza Rice making the case for war with Iraq September 8, 2002:

BLITZER: Dr. Rice, is there any hard evidence directly linking the Iraqi government to al Qaeda and the 9/11 terror attacks against the United States?

RICE: There is certainly evidence that al Qaeda people have been in Iraq. There is certainly evidence that Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists… We know that he is acquiring weapons of mass destruction, that he has extreme animous against the United States.

Republicans now claim that everyone thought the intelligence case was strong against Iraq, but that’s not accurate. There are numerous accounts of analysts who disagreed, and even a former chief of the CIA’s Europe division told 60 Minutes that CIA Director George Tenet had reported to Rice and other administration officials that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program, courtesy of Iraq’s foreign minister (who agreed to act as a spy for the United States).

4. Oh, lets be very careful with that thought,..

I would hate to see bloated brother Jeb come out and start preaching to us about the need to stop picking on his sweet brother George. Bring it on Jeb, the world awaits to hear you defend your bro for his crimes. Short of you coming out and throwing Chimpy under the bus for his crimes (never gonna happen), you have nothing more to say whatsoever!

6. We

can open up investigations and see how many Repukes and their allies retreat. And yeah, maybe the American people need to know the truth about the Bush neocon Administration instead of shoving everything under the rug. It did cause thousands of innocent Americans' to die.

14. from war hero to political zero. he's pathetic.

16. I take exception to him being declared a war hero.

I fell sorry for anyone who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. But, just because you are a prisoner doesn't seem to qualify as being a hero. I suppose if this was the case every person that we took prisoner during wars should be declared a hero. I thought that being a hero was reserved for a person who despite his own safety did something above the call for duty. I actually have very little respect for McCain. He is a prime example of a spoiled privileged brat. He got into the Naval Academy because of father and grandfather admirals. Allegedly he would have been kick out if not for the intervention of his father and then he graduated in the bottom 1% of his class. He was at best a lousy pilot. When he returned home after a horrible confinement to discover that his wife who had prayed incessantly for his wellbeing had been crippled in a car accident. He divorced her. So much for that in sickness or in health. His only claim to fame is that he married a wealthy drug addict who bought him a seat in congress. He doesn't qualify for being a hero in my estimation. Just what in the hell has he done that is so exceptional?

15. He is a spoiled, partisan, hack! Nothing more needs to be said!

19. The bastard...

...has simply turned into a senile old fart. I can't believe that that I ever had any respect for him - 2000. Then again a closer look at his military record - piss-poor pilot that crashed a number of planes even before he got his ass shot down in North Vietnam...was saved from drowning (couldn't even bail out properly, thus getting his shoulders busted) by folks he had just been bombing...then weenied-out while in captivity and told em what they wanted him to say - so they tortured him, lots of others were too without breaking. Point is, we can call it senility but the fact is this pissant has been a weasel all his life. Oh yeah, didn't even mention that he got his fighter-pilot slot regardless that he finished near the bottom of his class (Daddy and Grandaddy were Admirals) and that he dumped his wife - horribly injured in an auto accident - for a rich-bitch daughter of a Budweiser distributor. Guess I owe an apology to weasels.